The Spider That Collects Gold Coins
“Looks like you prepared in advance.”
Outside the room where Beatrice and the demon were locked in combat, Kyle stood motionless, his full attention fixed on their clash. Under normal circumstances he would have charged inside and taken the demon’s head in a single stroke, but this time he remained where he was. Beatrice had explicitly ordered him not to intervene no matter what happened.
Boom!Crash! Even through the closed door the sounds of explosions rolled out. The collateral damage of two superhumans colliding, the aftershocks of their techniques—both sides had deliberately dampened their power out of consideration for prying eyes, yet the fight was still far too violent for a back alley in the middle of the city. Had Kyle not erected a mana barrier around the perimeter, the entire district would have already erupted into panic.
Beatrice, it seemed, had anticipated this exact scenario; she had already evacuated nearly everyone who lived in the alley. When Kyle extended his senses, he detected no living signatures anywhere nearby.
“She’s meticulous about the little things, at least…”
Kyle’s expression soured as he stole another glance into the room.
Clang!
The demon’s slash grazed Beatrice’s cheek. She flicked away the clinging black flames with a thread of mana and swung her weapon again.
Slice.
But the mana threads no longer worked on him. Even if the attack couldn’t be seen, it could be felt—and to a superhuman, feeling something was the same as seeing it. If he could sense it, there was no reason he couldn’t block the comparatively slow-moving threads.
“…Tsk.”
Beatrice clicked her tongue and retreated as her attack was casually deflected.
“He’s getting closer.”
Since their first exchange, dozens of blows had already been traded. True to her title as the Spider That Collects Gold Coins, Beatrice had controlled every one of the demon’s movements, steadily drawing him into her web. Yet the demon was no ordinary prey. With a single sword he had burned away all the threads she had laid, and ever since, the wounds on Beatrice’s body had multiplied while the demonic energy shrouding the demon only grew darker and thicker.
“Haa… haa…”
The shadow of defeat was settling over Beatrice’s face.
“It was a foregone conclusion.”
Watching her gasp for breath, the demon slowly spoke.
“Fifth-Ring and Sixth-Ring. Setting aside the difference in rank, do you truly understand how vast the gap in our experience is?”
“……”
“Witch, while you were caressing gold coins, I gripped a sword. While you moved to expand your merchant empire, I wandered across battlefields and forged a contract with a demon. Do you understand what that means?”
Beatrice offered no reply. She was too busy steadying her ragged breathing. The demon did not wait for one.
“It is the difference between those who have known real combat and those who have not. Cowards who sit at desks merely fondling money can never catch up.”
Kyle gave a small, reluctant nod. He hated agreeing with the creature, but on that single point the demon was right. Beatrice’s opening gambit had been brilliant—manipulating space to restrict movement, then planting control formulas directly into the opponent’s meridians. Anyone unfamiliar with manipulation mages would have fallen before they could react. In fact, the demon himself had been caught by it.
But that was all. Once he broke free, Beatrice had been unable to land a single meaningful counter. She could only dodge desperately. It was not a matter of technique quality but of efficiency. The mana cost of her first strike and the subsequent evasion was so enormous that she had no strength left to retaliate.
Even if she had hoped the fight would end with that opening move, the plan had failed. Now she had to adapt, and adaptation required experience—real, hard-won experience. Beatrice lacked it. The demon possessed it in abundance.
“……”
Beatrice seemed to understand this as well; she remained silent. The demon stared at her for a moment, then raised his sword once more.
“The outcome is already decided. It is time to carry out the plan.”
He assumed a perfect stance, sword lifted high above his head. Demonic energy began to gather along the blade in a torrent that dwarfed everything he had shown before. Kyle’s posture immediately shifted. That was unmistakably a finishing technique, and Beatrice had no way to stop it. Not because her ability was lacking, but because the attack was composed of demonic energy.
If the black flames of the Outer Gods existed outside the world’s laws, the demonic energy granted by a demon toyed with those very laws. There was no easy way to judge which held the advantage, but any superhuman who did not understand how to counter it would be helpless.
“She told me not to interfere, but…”
Incurring Beatrice’s resentment was preferable to watching her die. After all, only the living could be resented or annoyed.
A low hum rose as Kyle began to heat his mana. No matter how familiar he was with demonic energy, this was not something that could be dealt with lightly—especially when he had to stop it with his bare fists.
He compressed the heated mana into his knuckles and took a step forward to intervene.
Clang!
“I knew you would try that.”
A familiar barrier suddenly blocked his path. Mana solidified into an impenetrable wall, sealing off his movement. Beside it, a woman descended gracefully through the air.
Kyle looked at her and spoke slowly.
“…Would Your Imperial Majesty care to explain what this is?”
The Emperor gave a light laugh.
“Demanding an explanation from the ruler of an empire? You really do have a habit of ignoring etiquette.”
“I believe Your Majesty knows this is not a situation that can be brushed aside with jokes.”
Kyle clenched his fist. The barrier had been raised by an Eighth-Ring transcendent. He could break it if he exerted himself, but by then Beatrice would have been struck by that lethal slash. Regardless of any ill will the Emperor might harbor toward her, that was unacceptable.
Therefore he spoke with genuine intent.
“No. This time, let it pass.”
The Emperor’s reply carried equal sincerity. Her expression was unusually serious, and Kyle could not hide his surprise.
“What…?”
“Exactly what I said. You must not interfere with that child’s challenge.”
“Challenge?”
Kyle turned his head. The Emperor’s barrier remained in place, yet beyond it he could clearly see Beatrice’s face. The Spider That Collects Gold Coins. Leader of one of the Empire’s five great merchant groups. A Fifth-Ring mage. She was still glaring at her opponent, refusing to yield. Just as she always had.
Gold coins were beautiful. That brilliant, shining color—coins that would retain their value eternally, even until the world itself was destroyed. That was why she loved them so much.
To her, the single gold coin a soldier had given her was an unforgettable gift. She had believed there was no such thing as unconditional goodwill in this world, which made the gesture all the more impossible to forget.
The girl from the back alleys had used that one coin to earn money, just as the soldier said. Before long she left her hometown. Emerging from the dark alleys into the bright marketplace, she refused to waste her talent. The number of gold coins in her hand grew steadily, and the back-alley girl eventually became the master of her own merchant company.
Yet even after rising to that position, her goal never changed. She still loved gold coins, and she wanted to prove that the soldier’s kindness had not been wasted. Therefore she aimed even higher, because money naturally followed those who stood at the top.
On her way upward she heard rumors of a madman. The descent of Outer Gods and demons. Darkness that would swallow the world. The end of everything. A man who believed in such absurd tales and marched forward alone. It was the same soldier who had once helped her. He now stood in a far higher place than when she first met him, yet his fundamental nature remained unchanged.
Perhaps that was why she set aside her own ambitions and chose to support his cause. Everyone around her called it a waste of money, but the girl disagreed. She remembered the words he had spoken to her on the day they met:
‘Wasting money on pointless things isn’t something you should do.’
Just as he said, she did not waste it. The soldier she supported became the Empire’s first star, and the girl who had given him a fortune worth tens of billions rose to an even loftier height because of it.
Now she stood at this crossroads with two choices before her. Would she abandon the most precious commodity she had ever possessed? Or would she abandon the gold coins she loved more than anything?
The Emperor’s question had forced her to think for the first time since entering the room. She did not want to lose either. On the sixth day, a simple thought occurred to her: if she did not want to lose either, then she simply had to keep both.
It was selfish. Some would call it arrogant. But whether as the Spider That Collects Gold Coins or simply as Beatrice, she had never been anything but selfish and arrogant. She had reached this place by embracing greed. Therefore—
She would take everything in the world into her own hands. That was the true shape of Beatrice’s heart.
Crunch—!
At the sound of the world itself being torn apart, Beatrice slowly opened her eyes. Before her raged black flames that looked ready to devour the world at any moment. The demon’s sword strike had shredded every wall and mana thread she had placed in its path.
Faced with demonic energy and a slash that seemed to scream at the heavens, Beatrice moved her fingers once more. Her opponent was Sixth-Ring, a swordsman who had accepted demonic energy through a contract with a demon. This was his full-powered strike—an original, unique product one would rarely witness anywhere in the world. She wanted it.
And to possess such a treasure, one needed even greater caliber. Therefore Beatrice—one of only two manipulation mages left in the world—slowly moved her fingers.
The black hole Kyle had once displayed before her was still beyond her reach, even after solidifying her own state of mind. Subtly dissecting and manipulating laws engraved into the world was a feat reserved for those who had stepped into the transcendent realm. So she would use something one step below that.
With the pure desire to claim the incoming slash as her own, Beatrice whispered while facing the oncoming strike.
"Manipulation-type unique magic."
⟨ Will Thread: Reversal ⟩
Five rings. Then a sixth ring formed, and colorless threads unfolded. With a grinding screech they not only caught the demon’s slash but twisted its direction completely, sending it hurtling back the way it had come.